The _Belvidera_ began kedging at 10.30 o’clock in the morning. The _Constitution_ had been at it for an hour already. Steadily the two crews labored at the heart-breaking task until 3 o’clock in the afternoon, when once more a zephyr from the south roughened the oily waves and then lifted first the royals of the _Constitution_ and then the top-gallant sails. The heavy canvas of top-sails and courses would not swell to its weight, but the kites could pull her. It was a fitful, varying breath, but it lasted four hours, and during that time the Americans actually held the braces by which the sails were trimmed constantly in hand, while the brave old captain kept his eyes on the weather-vane and jockeyed her along as a racing skipper handles his yacht. It was a race for a stake such as has never been known on any coast, for it was a race for the life of a nation. Had _Old Ironsides_ been captured while Rodgers was making his fruitless cruise, and imbeciles were leading worthless militia in a day-dream scheme of conquest toward Canada, the result would have been deadly. As night came on (it was at 7 o’clock) this breeze failed once more. It then lacked less than an hour of a full day since the men had been called to quarters. For twenty-three hours they had stood at their guns, had made and taken in and trimmed sail, had lowered and rowed away and hoisted up boats, had carried out anchors and hauled on the cables till they gasped for breath. It had been a day to wear the life out of any ordinary man, but, as John Paul Jones said on the deck of the _Bonhomme Richard_, these could say now: “We have not yet begun to fight.” In spite of weariness, the instant the zephyr failed them these men once more dropped the boats and carried out the small anchors with the long lines and began again to claw their way clear of the enemy. Until 10.45 P.M. they worked with steady patience, and then another teasing zephyr came to fill the sails of the ship, and the boats except one were all hoisted clear of the water. During all this time the _Guerrière_ and the _Belvidera_ had fairly held their own, being aided by the men from the other ships. The _Shannon_ had dropped back a deal, but the _Eolus_ was not by any means far enough away to be ignored. But when the breeze came, the _Belvidera_ got enough of the flaws of air to forge ahead, so that soon after daylight (at 4 o’clock) on the morning of July 19th she was well forward on the lee beam of the _Constitution_, and, tacking about, she stood for the Yankee. If the _Constitution_ held fast as she was the _Belvidera_ was sure to pass within easy gunshot astern and deliver a raking fire that would play havoc with spars and sails. If the _Constitution_ tacked also, the _Eolus_, off on the Yankee’s weather-quarter, would have a chance of forging within gunshot. The _Constitution_ was cornered and a choice had to be made.